Birth Injury Blog

Cerebral palsy or CP is a common term that includes people with disabilities in neurological function associated with movement and posture. This disease is not progressive, and starts from the disruptions in the child’s brain development during pregnancy, childbirth or after.

What causes Cerebral Palsy?
The reasons or causes of genealogical cerebral palsy, has not yet been assured. Though, the children born under certain conditions are at high risk of its development. These conditions include: premature birth, the presence of a brain haemorrhage, the child requiring ventilator for more than 4 weeks, undersized child who does not cry during the first 5 minutes after delivery, the internal system disturbances in the kidneys, spine or heart, and the occurrence of seizures.

A few cases of cerebral palsy due to head injuries in early childhood and may occur after acute malnutrition, infections, or extreme head trauma in infancy and early childhood.

What types of cerebral palsy?
Spastic and athetoid cerebral palsy refers to a problem of movement, while quadriplegia, hemiplegia, and diplegia refers to certain parts of the body involved in the state. Spastic cerebral palsy refers to the inability to relax the muscles, and athetoid CP refers to a lack the movement control of muscle. In the spastic type may occur along with other species, and rightly so, as a rule, about 30% of cases of cerebral palsy.

Quadriplegia is the inability to control muscles of the hands and feet, as well as the neck and torso. A person with quadriplegia will be unable to walk or even stand. Diplegia cover both legs, and hemiplegia involves arm and leg on one side. A person with diplegia can walk independently or with the help of crutches, canes and walkers.

ataxia cerebral palsy refers to inability to control balance and coordination. The extent of this condition varies from child to child, and therefore generalizations can not be known easyly.

How is it diagnosed?
Children with cerebral palsy can not perform the normal development of skills such as basic motor functions, such as the attainment of the object, sitting on their own, and even on foot. In addition to these developmental delays, the doctor may also consider the anomalies in the muscles and muscle tones, reflexes and movement.

frequently, It’s hard to define cerebral palsy, because it needs an indefinite period of time. The child may be more than one year before the diagnosis of cerebral palsy, or it could be two years, and found no riots after all.

Blood tests and X-rays will not determine cerebral palsy. They are used only to exclude other medical conditions that may affect child development. Often, tests and checks as CT or MRI and CT scan or MRI may be used. Again, these tests will not prove whether a child has cerebral palsy, but it will provide evidence of other conditions that might seem evidence of cerebral palsy, but is actually another medical condition in general.

The prognosis
The growth of the children with cerebral palsy can’t be predicted. Nevertheless, a doctor can decide if his condition is quadriplegia, diplegia, or paralysis. The informations of these condirions can be used for the parents to do and what they expect from it.

Medical problems associated with cerebral palsy
Children with cerebral palsy have problems such as mental retardation, learning of persons with disabilities, epilepsy, hyperactivity and attention deficit disorders. For children with conditions as spastic quadriplegia, common problems, like difficulty in swallowing can also occur. A child with cerebral palsy, will also require continuous treatment and care.

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